Researchers reveal why they think Mars is red

“This suggests that Mars may have had an environment capable of sustaining liquid water before it transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of years ago,” NASA said in a press release this week.

NASA partially funded the study.

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A new study reveals that Mars’ distinctive red color comes from the mineral ferrihydrite, which forms only in the presence of cold water. (AFP via Getty Images)

In the study, published in the journal Nature Communications this week, researchers analyzed data from several missions to Mars, including several Mars rovers, and compared the results to laboratory experiments “in which the team tested how light interacts with ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions.” NASA said.

“The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been studied for hundreds if not thousands of years,” Adam Valentinas, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

Valentinas is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who began his studies as a Ph.D. Student at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

He continued: “From our analysis, we believe that ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and perhaps also in rock formations as well. We are not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason why Mars turns red, but we can now better test this using observational data and new laboratory methods for making Martian dust in the laboratory.”

In this NASA release, a Martian landscape is shown in an image taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in 2003. (NASA/JPL/Cornell University via Getty Images)

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Jack Mustard, one of the study’s senior authors, called the study “an opportunity to open the door.”

“It gives us a better opportunity to apply the principles of mineral formation and conditions to the benefit of time,” said Mustard, the Brown University professor. “But even more important is the return of samples from Mars that are now being collected by the Perseverance rover. When we get them back, we can actually check and see if this is true.”

The research shows that Mars likely had a cold but humid climate and was possibly habitable in its ancient past.

The atmosphere of Mars is very cold and would not have supported life now, but billions of years ago Planet NASA said the planet had an abundance of water, which is also evident from the ferrihydrite found in its dust.

Laboratory sample of simulated Martian dust. (NASA/Adam Valentinas)

“These new findings point to a possible habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of coordinated research between NASA and its international partners when exploring fundamental questions about our solar system and the future of space exploration,” says Jeronimo Villanueva, associate director for Strategic Science in the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and a co-author of the study.

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What researchers want to understand is the ancient climate of Mars, and the chemical processes on Mars — not only are they ancient — but they exist, Valentinas said.

He continued: “Then there is the question of habitability: Was there life at all? To understand that, you have to understand the conditions that existed during the time of the formation of this mineral. What we know from this study is that the evidence points to the formation of ferrihydrite and for that to happen there must be conditions in which oxygen from the air or other sources and water could react with the iron. Those conditions were very different from the dry, cold environment of today. As the Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the distinctive red appearance of the planet.”